


Let the Night Be Mine Forever

by Niki



Series: My Lady of Grace [1]
Category: The Mummy (1999)
Genre: Ancient Egypt, Dreams, F/M, Reincarnation, canonical minor character deaths
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-25
Updated: 2012-12-25
Packaged: 2017-11-22 10:29:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/608847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Niki/pseuds/Niki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Evie dreams.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Let the Night Be Mine Forever

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lalaietha](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lalaietha/gifts).



> Okay, so, I think I might only have included the characters from your request (not really hijinks as such, sorry), but there were things from your DYA letter that inspired me, and... well, I hope you like this anyway.
> 
> Dedicated to Sarqu, a Kemetian palace dog, and my beta, the goddess Neith.

Evie dreams. 

_She is Nefertiri, a daughter of the Pharaoh, a warrior priestess of Hathor, and she is is watching her father being murdered by his favourite mistress and his high priest. She is too far away to help, stuck on her balcony, and she looks down to where the guard is, meets the pair of brown eyes she usually tries to avoid gazing into too often. She calls for the Medjai to help their ruler, and they are running for him even before she has finished her shout._

_Her eyes are drawn back to the rooms on the other side, where his father lies on the floor, bleeding, still. She sees Imhotep fleeing, Anck-Su-Namun staying to face the guard alone. She can't think to fight them all? She is a great fighter, greater than Nefertiri, to her eternal shame, but against the Medjai... She turns the knife to herself, and Nefertiri feels fierce joy in knowing she is gone, glad she won't be forced to meet her eyes, hear her justifications, wait for her trial._

_Her hands grip the balcony wall, eyes closed, head bowed, waiting for news. Finally, after an eternity, there are footsteps. She doesn't turn. If someone got past the guard at her door... if someone wants to kill her too... she is too weary to care._

_“Your Highness,” says a voice that usually makes her happy just hearing it and she turns to see him kneeling on the floor before her. “The falcon is flown to heaven and his son is arisen in his place.”_

_“And the murderers?” She will never use their names again, and will erase all mention of them in every document so that they will never be spoken again, so that their Ka will find no ally in the world, and they shall be eternally lost._

_“The woman lies dead, the man has fled. The Medjai are giving chase.”_

_“And... my father?” In his company, she can be informal. In his company, she can let her tears fall._

_“The priests who did not flee with their master are looking after His Majesty,” he replies, also more informal than he would be in public._

_“And my brother?”_

_“His Majesty – may he live, prosper and stay healthy – is asleep. The Vizier has gone to inform him.”_

_“He is not ready,” she whispers, thinking of her young, reckless brother, the oldest surviving son by her father. Chosen of Ra, Beloved by Amun, and more interested in being a soldier than a king._

_“He has you,” her guard says, then bows his head hastily, “Your Highness.”_

_His brief lapse into informality unfreezes her feet. She takes a step towards him, then another, then lets herself fall on her knees in front of him. Not quite touching, not quite crossing that final barrier._

_“And me?” she asks. “What if I'm not ready?” she whispers._

_He raises his head and meets her eyes, his own filled with promise that can never be fulfilled. “You have me,” he whispers, a vow, an acknowledgement of something that has never been spoken._

_The Medjai are honoured but even they cannot touch a royal princess. Especially not one that has been consecrated to a Goddess. Even if it is a Goddess of Love._

_They stay on their knees until Ra has completed his nightly journey and risen again, until they are numb, until her tears have run their course, and they do not touch each other once._

Evie wakes up with a start, her mind and heart filled with sadness of the moment, and it takes her a while to remember who she is, where she is, and when she is. 

She turns around on the soft bed (not a hard floor of the palace balcony) and sees her husband sleeping by her side. She moves closer, rests her head on his chest (not separated by centuries of custom), and listens to the calming and familiar sound of his heartbeat. He moves in his sleep, wrapping an arm around her, unconsciously giving her what she needs in pulling her closer. 

Soothed by his warmth, she falls asleep again, smiling.

\- - - 

Rick dreams.

_It's the first time he's ever had the dream but it feels familiar. He knows it is a dream. And he knows that it is not. He sees Heru-deshret, his friend, his brother. They are guarding the body of a dead king, their last duty to him. They are also guarding his successor, their new Pharaoh, who is at the head of the funeral procession._

_He is also guarding the king's daughter, warrior priestess of Hathor, Nefertiri, who is by her brother's side, in defiance of custom, by his request. She is his Regent, ruling in his name until he reaches maturity, or – she says – until he is ready. The light-hearted, reckless prankster of a prince has matured already during the seventy days that it took for the priests to finish the embalming of their father._

_During those days they lost the body of the murderess whose name shall not be uttered by decree of the Regent, and interrupted a forbidden ritual by the murderous priest. All of the criminals have been slain now. Nefertiri wanted their bodies burnt but her brother had just read about ancient curses and wished for the betraying high priest to go through Hom-dai, and she would not deny his first ruling._

_So the murderer whose name shall not be uttered had been buried alive, with flesh eating scarabs still feasting on him, and the priests that followed him were allowed mummification but with no rituals, no tombs, and no one to perform sacrifices for them. The murderess had also been granted the same, at the bequest of the new King, and the Regent had carried them out in silence._

_The Medjai were charged with guarding the monster, lest he would one day rise and rain vengeance on their land. Heru-deshret is to be their leader in this, and normally he would follow his brother anywhere. But he cannot conceive leaving the Princess unguarded._

_Khamudi, not born in the Black Land, willing to lay down his life for Kemet, for its Ruler, for his Princess, Lady of Grace, the Golden One. His sister, whom he will never touch._

_She is to depart to Dendera after her time as Regent is over, and he will follow her, even if it makes him a deserter. He will keep her safe, even if in secret. He will follow her forever, in the hopes that one day their bodies can be one as their souls already are._

Rick wakes up, arms around his wife, and for a moment is so blindingly happy he feels like his heart is going to burst.

\- - - 

Jonathan dreams.

_He's liking this dream. He's a Pharaoh in it, and all the riches of the Two Lands are his. His ipet is filled with women, bearing his sons, securing the allegiance of their fathers, or just existing to please him._

_His Queen is as beautiful and smart as his favourite sister, an equal in a way he didn't know he wanted._

_He is a respected and feared ruler, and his achievements in the field of battle are undisputed._

_He wants it to go on forever. Eternity, neheh, is cyclical. Maybe he will have it again, and forever after._

**Author's Note:**

> Sources:  
> http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/index.html  
> Wikipedia  
> Random uni courses over the past decade
> 
> Facts mangled to fit the movies, inspired partly by Egyptian love songs but I couldn't find a way to fit them in. (The title is from one.)


End file.
